How to foot dowels?

[Prarie Bowyer]

I'd like to foot some exotic wood onto poplar dowels.  When I cut my tapers the way I normally do it the stock is square.  There has to be a way to skin this cat.  Any ideas?

[RBLusthaus]

gotta make a jig to hold the round shaft steady and in a repeatable manner while you present the point end to the machine or the hand tool.  You looking to do 2 wing or 4?  I have a jig I made for 4 wing foots - - if you like I can snap a pic tonite.  Let me know.     I have not done it, but I would think 2 wing would be much easier.  Very labor intensive process, but you know that already. 

with my jig, 4 wing cuts get made on the shaft either with a router table or a drill press with a router bit (I use the DP).  4 cuts per shaft.  The footing (beginning as a square cross section) gets cut on a band saw or by hand saw, glued to the shaft, and then reduced to match the shaft diameter. 

I think, if I were doing 2 wing cuts on shafts, the tool of choice would be some kind of upright sander.

Russ

[lostarrow]

Did some with a jig on the tablesaw with dado blds. Lot of farting around to get the right angle. There is a set up you can buy for several hundred dollars .  Video is on Youtube. You would want a lot of orders to pay that one off. As stated, it's a lot of work , but the 4 footed sure look nice. When you do the 2 footed, clamp the footing above the cut to make sure it doesn't split . once the glue dries  it's good to go.

[Badger]

  I built a jig for my tablesaw that will do 4 point, it is just a ramp with half the ramp cut off and glued back on top creating a compound angle.

[Prarie Bowyer]

I'm not doing quad footed. 

BUT I came up with an idea for a trapazoid that clamps the dowel.  Just loosen the clamping nuts that are recessed with allen screws and slide the dowel in.  Set the fence on the table saw or band saw and slide it through... flip over and slide through again..  Remove dowel and repeat.  That way you can cut a mess at a time.

[bubbles]

If there are pics of any of these 2 footed jigs,  definitely like to check it out. Its really easy to splice square stock and then dowel it,  but all the actual shafts I've wanted to foot have been less than successful.

[Prarie Bowyer]

Havent tried it yet.  Its freezing out there right now.

[bubbles]

Fact.

[turtle]

The only time i did this i cut the taper on the shaft freehand with a plane.




The footing was square with a slot bandsawn down the middle. Rounded footing with hand plane after gluing.

The nock inserts were a little harder.